Eros theatre learns to speak Marathi

Despite abutting the city’s Marathi heartland, it took Eros theatre at Marine Lines 72 long years to recognise the business potential in screening Marathi films.

For the first time since it opened in 1938, the single-screen theatre has purchased screening rights for a Marathi film,  Natrang, running three shows over the last weekend.

But the realisation didn’t come easy, as the theatre refused to buy into the film’s success story for the first two weeks. It was when the film began drawing large crowds in other cinema halls did the Eros management realise the film’s potential, as also the dearth of theatres screening it in South Mumbai.

“We saw the collections of Natrang in Dadar in the first two weeks and realised that people are liking this film. We also figured that no theatre in South Mumbai was showing it,” said Muralidharan,
manager of Eros theatre.

When the screening began last Friday, there was only show on charts, and that too at 3.30pm. But since even that went full, the theatre introduced one more show on Saturday, and thereon, all
the three went house full on Sunday.

“There has been a tremendous response, and this is the first time that a Marathi film is doing so well at Eros.  Although from Monday the collection has gone down a little, we still have 55% collection, which is good,” Muralidharan said.

The lead actor of the film, Atul Kulakarni, said that the Marathi film industry needs to learn a lesson from this experience. “The theatres are running a business and they are looking for returns. The fact that they [Eros] realised the film potential, albeit after two weeks, shows that they are looking for a saleable film, and are not concerned with the language of the film,” said Kulakarni. “One cannot also discount the fact that Natrang has created a buzz, and the word-of-mouth publicity helped the film.”